Saturday, February 26, 2005

Warner Music, the former subsidiary of Time Warner, paid its top five executives more than $21m in salary and bonuses following last year's $2.6bn acquisition of the US music group by a private equity consortium.

The pay-outs include further guaranteed bonuses or change of control payments at the world's fourth-largest music groupboasting 38,000 artists including Green Day, Linkin Park and Madonna.

According to documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, last year's total executive remuneration was more than three times higher than Warner Music's $7m operating income for the 10 months to September 30.

In that period, the company reversed previous operating losses of $197m as sales increased from $2.49bn to $2.55bn.

The management payments reflect Warner's success in cutting costs following last year's completion of the Time Warner disposal. The company expects to deliver $250m of annualised savings by May this year, achieved mainly through 1,600 job losses.

Of the top management, Edgar Bronfman Jr, the chairman who led last year's buy-out, received a $1m salary and $5.25m bonus. Paul Rene Albertini, head of Warner's international operations, was paid $1.25m in salary and a $3.15m bonus.

Lyor Cohen, head of the US recorded music business, received $1m and $5.24m respectively. Les Bider, the veteran chairman of the Warner Chappell music publishing business, received a $2.44m total payment.

The SEC document, filed as part of a $565m bond exchange offer by Warner Music, also reveals misgivings by outside auditors over internal accounting skills and royalty payment systems.

In its "S4" filing, Warner insists it has addressed problem areas such as appointing a permanent chief financial officer and establishing an audit committee.

But the company admits "additional measures will be necessary and these measures along with other measures we expect to take to improve our internal controls may not be sufficient to address the issues identified by our outside auditors".

Warner Music explained that these further measures would involve setting up financial controls and management systems that were previously handled by Time Warner, its former parent company, but were absent in the demerged company.

The weaknesses were identified as Warner Music is considering a potential initial public offering in the first half of this year, expected to place a $5bn enterprise value on the company.

Beall Center for Art and TechnologyClaire Trevor School of the ArtsUniversity of California, Irvine

Jazz pianist Kei Akagi of the UCI Music Department will give a brief performance in live interaction with a collection of robotic musical instruments. The robotic instruments, designed by LEMUR (the League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots), are currently installed as an exhibition in the Beall Center for Art and Technology. Mr. Akagi will provide a demonstration of realtime musical interaction between man and machines, using music composed by, and musically intelligent robotic behavior programmed by, UCI professor Christopher Dobrian.

The 20-minute performance will be followed by a question-and-answer session with professors Akagi and Dobrian and LEMUR founder Eric Singer.

Seating is limited; for reservations phone (949) 824-4339.

Kei Akagi is professor of Jazz Composition and Performance in the UCI Music Department. Christopher Dobrian is professor of Composition and Technology, and director of the Gassmann Electronic Music Studio and the Realtime Audio Research Laboratory. The LEMUR exhibition is ongoing at the Beall Center through March 19, 2005.

Mr. Akagi will perform on a Yamaha Disklavier grand piano, with generous support from the Yamaha Corporation of America, the Gassmann Electronic Music Studio of UCI, and the Beall Center for Art and Technology.

Wednesday, February 02, 2005

Somehow I think that this article is actually talking about the most banal of smooth jazz. (From the headline: "Forget counting sheep, next time you are having trouble dropping off to sleep try putting on a jazz CD.")

About Me

Durkin is a composer and writer living in Portland, OR. His first book, Decomposition: A Music Manifesto, was published in 2014 by Pantheon. He recently finished a children's novel about an oak tree and some flying cats, and is currently writing more non-fiction.

Durkin is best known as the leader of the Industrial Jazz Group. He has scored several films and videos, including the award winning shorts “Fish” and “Lunch” by Sarah Jane Shute, and has been commissioned to compose for numerous schools, ensembles, and arts organizations. He has received grants from the American Composers Forum and Meet the Composer. Durkin's music has been heard on NPR, and performed at prestigious international venues like Amsterdam’s Bimhuis and Milan’s Teatro Manzoni, as well as throughout the US. He has a PhD in English Literature, was postdoctoral fellow at USC’s Institute for Multimedia Literacy/Annenberg Center for Communication, and published an article (“The Self-Playing Piano as a Site for Textual Criticism”) in TEXT: An Interdisciplinary Annual of Textual Studies.